WE STEAL SECRETS recounts in minute detail the rise and fall of Wikileaks, concentrating especially on its release of classified American government material, and the careers of Julian Assange and Bradley Manning. We learn a lot about Assange's career, his devotion to computers, his turbulent childhood, and his determination to do the right thing by releasing material. The same goes for Manning; although employed by the US Army, he believed it was in the public interest to tell the truth about the army's conduct during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. However Alex Gidney's film seems a little uncertain about how to judge the protagonists in the Wikileaks affair; on the one hand we are asked to admire Assange for his decision to act in the public interest, but on the other hand we see him as something of a fantasist, obsessed with conspiracy theories and apt to bend the truth if it serves his interests. Similarly Manning is praised for his bravery in releasing sensitive material, but criticized on account of his sexuality. While there are certainly no winners and losers in the entire affair, I think that the film should have adopted a bolder perspective - especially as it seems that Assange and Manning are now doomed to spend the rest of their lives in some form of captivity.

Iam all for protecting the people but there a point when things go to far and we gone way beyond that.The NSA no just tracking terrorists its coping everything with out regard for warrants or what the rights of the people are.They are spying on their own allies and lying to the public.Then they go after the people for breaking the law by exposing them and totally disregard the fact they broke the laws in the first place.There a old saying when the constitution was written up.The people should not fear the government but the government should fear the people.By their very actions they creating the governments that these terrorists fear so much.These guys aren't all saints by any stretch by they have shown that we need to take back control and make the governments responsible to the people once again.

I found it to be a good documentary but it is not consistent over the 2hrs. It tells the story of Wikileaks & Julian Assange & Peter Manning. But it barely manages to scratch surface of the subjects, does not focus on each subjects properly & switches to something else. In my opinion it would have been great if it focused on one topic say Peter Manning & act of whistle blowing. In the last 10 minutes , 2 guys who were affiliated to Wikileaks talk about whistle blowers. "Whistle blowing is an isolating act. You are doing something which your colleagues and friends won't like you to do or they won't understand. That alienated you further from them. " "In the end everybody is just human, if you are leaking something important to a reporter , something that's really makes a difference, then from a human perspective it is difficult not to get credit for it, no one can tap you on shoulder & say courageous thing you did. & that's the complicated part about it , how do you make sure your source don't compromise themselves" It would have been better if more insight into mind of whistle blower was given to us. That would be something which I have n't seen, (except in The Insider (1999), which is a masterpiece). The interviewees could tell more about how the delicacy of the whole process of getting some classified information, protecting the source of information. The whole material of the documentary, with proper story telling can make a very good movie, but not an excellent documentary. I believe documentaries are supposed to be about insight into something & draw some conclusion. It does provide us with lot of information but less insight.

IMDb's plot outline is brief when it says 'A documentary that details the creation of Julian Assange's controversial website, which facilitated the largest security breach in U.S. history', but it fails to mention that the movie covers many more security breaches besides U.S. ones; it's just that all those other revelations pale in comparison.As documentaries go, this work falls short of the mark by a country mile as there are no interviews of the key people, other than rehashed stuff seen before, here and there. That being said, for those who only have a superficial knowledge of Wikileaks and its founder, you will learn a great deal you ought to know. I didn't think the movie was a hatchet job on Julian Assange, but it certainly doesn't glamorize him. It touched on several very influential achievements of WikiLeaks, without really getting to the meat of any of them. I suppose if you're interested in some of those topics you'll be tempted to dig on your own, on Wikileaks website (amazingly still up on the web). I recommend you do; it's as enlightening as any other good read, very.The 'Cablegate' scandal, which effects are still being felt today, the match that lit the flames of the Arab Spring and has been the bane of Obama's presidency almost from the start is talked about in this documentary, though not nearly as extensively as I felt it should, will blow your mind. You might even understand why so many leaders and countries despise the U.S, if you don't already. The cocoon of protection from secrets large corporations have hidden their shameful deeds has been shattered thanks to WikiLeaks; the veil of righteousness of world leaders has been ripped off their indignant looking faces to reveal the real world. But this movie did not come close to making that point unfortunately, unless you read between the lines.Assange's own credibility and motivation are covered and that admittedly will not reflect well on the man, but it should not deter anyone from consulting the website. I enjoyed watching this movie, but I have to admit it's not for the well informed; I recommend it to everyone else.